Today, this technology has made the manufacturing process not only fast, but also very accurate and economical.
The technology has proven to be a very efficient way to cut 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional metal parts and is even capable of cutting newer high strength materials like Ultra high strength steel.
The laser cutting process involves focussing of high energy laser beam on the work piece which either melts, burns or vaporises the metal, leaving a clean edge. The commercial machines work in conjugation with a CNC or computer numerical control system with the help of which accurate design pattern can be fed onto the machine in form of G codes. The machine reads these G codes and the laser cuts the metal to the highest degree of accuracy. The flexible nature of this technology has resulted in wide spread application of this technology. Its ability to be used by multi axis robots, which perform the tasks quickly and precisely has made this technology very popular amongst various industries ranging from automobile to aerospace.
There are three type of laser cutting technology available at industrial scale:
# CO2 laser technology : This is the most common type of laser cutting that is used extensively in the industry due to its versatile nature and cost effectiveness. It involves pumping CO2 gas and exciting with DC current to produce laser beam. It is used to perform cutting, boring and engraving operations. It can cut a wide variety of materials namely mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium, titanium, paper, wax, wood, fabric, plastic etc.
# Neodymium ( Nd- YAG) laser technology : This type of technology is used where high energy output is required for boring, cutting, scribing and engraving on metals as well as ceramic surfaces.
# Fibre laser : This is the newest form of laser cutting technology, it involves amplification of laser beam by glass fibre, which results in a highly concentrated and fine cutting edge. Its major advantage is that it can produce very high precision cuts and is about 100 times more fine than a standard CO2 laser.
The cutting method is the main parameter which determines the overall efficiency of the process. Work quality, surface finish, production time, energy requirement etc. all depend upon the type of cutting method adopted for the process. There are many cutting methods available in the industries, but vaporising and melt and blow are the most commonly used methods in manufacturing industry.
# Vaporising : In this type of cutting, the concentrated laser beam heats up the metal up to its boiling point and the metal to be cut literally vaporises leaving a clean cut of desired shape. This method requires high energy input and is capable of cutting non melting materials such as wood, plastics etc.
# Melt and Blow : This is another method which is extensively used in industry due to its economical nature. In this method, the metal is heated to its melting point by the laser beam, then the molten metal is removed from the work piece surface by a high pressure gas blow. Heating the metal only up to melting point requires less energy as compared to vaporising method.
Laser cutting technology has literally transformed the manufacturing industry in a way no other technology could. This technology is improving everyday to become more useful and economical so that it can be applied to small industries also. It has become an integral part of any production system making it faster, reliable and accurate.